Dharma explorations by Stephanie Noble

From over fifteen years of sharing her understanding of Buddhist concepts

  • Freedom from Fear

    Is fear useful? Most would say yes. They say, “Fear keeps us from doing dangerous things and therefore is a valuable survival tool.” Is this really true? Everyone in the Tuesday meditation class nodded their heads in agreement. What is your experience? Can you name a situation when fear was useful for you? As you…

  • Freedom from Struggle

    We have been framing the conversation over the past weeks in terms of freedom. A sense of freedom is one of the many benefits of a regular practice of meditation. But I am aware that talking about these freedoms could easily set up expectation about what we should be feeling when we meditate or how…

  • Maybe You Already Have the Makings of a Personal Practice

    I teach a weekly meditation class, but I encourage my students to meditate on a daily basis as well. Some have developed a personal practice, others are struggling to find a way to carve out time in their over-scheduled lives to do so. When this is the case, I usually ask, “What other activities do…

  • Metta Beyond Measure

    Following up on ‘Freedom beyond measure,’ the discussion of measure wouldn’t be complete without mention of metta, or loving kindness, and how easy it is to think that it is some meager allotment that we measure and dole out sparingly. Quite the opposite! We practice meditation for the benefit of all beings. We end each…

  • Meditation brings freedom beyond measure

    We have been discussing various aspects of freedom. (See previous posts.) We may believe ourselves to be free because no one is constraining us from doing anything we might want to do, as long as it is legal. That is an important and valued freedom. But most of us are imprisoned and don’t even know…